Holiday traditions or fairytales in a cupboard

Hello everyone,
Christmas is just around the corner and every house on the street is wearing it's best festive decorations. And if you lucky enough all around you is calm, white and shiny... you have probably left your scrap rooms and places to rest and celebrate the coming Holidays, but if you are still in the mood for little crafting or just need few quick and simple gifts or gift wrapping ideas then stop by Eileen Hull's blog for tons of Christmassy inspiration and easy projects. There's also a few days left to share your art with us at Art with Heart December challenge:Holiday Traditions.
As for me I'm still crafting and still have few ideas to share with you before the Christmas ^.^ and bring you some inspiration and festive spirit.
These days I was thinking about our holiday traditions in the days when I was a little girl and still lived with my grandparents, so sweet times...love going down this memory lane, I'm recalling that on Christmas and New Year our house was always full of sweets and candies. The truth is that I stopped believing in St.Claus pretty soon but I always enjoyed making up stories about little elves, magical Santa's helpers that stuffed our kitchen's cupboard with all the sweets and presents ^.^ and that was when I decided to make such cupboard.

and of course it is full of sweets and little elves ^.^

to make it I used Eileen Hull's cube/block 3-D dies. I cut 2 from Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D and 2 from ScoreBoards XL Die - Blocks/Cubes, 3-D (the smallest one)

tip: before putting them together as usual, I embellished them with some patterned paper from the inner side  (and also leave one side of the blocks free to open-cupboard door)

then I cut one more block from the Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D
I used it for the cupboards back and the top shelf

trim off to give a proper shape and adhere to the big blocks which by the way we need to previously adhere one to another

and the view from behind

after that I added the smaller blocks (with some openings on a free "door" sides I cut before) on the top and covered the empty space with some cardstock

after that just decorate the way you like. As a first layer of decoration I added some patterned paper and then covered it with different layers of paints, also I added some stamping here and there just for little more texture

 

and few words about this devilish cutie little owl

I cut it with tim holtz movers and shapers die and covered with my newly acquired Prima art ingredients (mica flakes and art glass). The owl is so shiny that I had to make about 10 shots of it to capture it in a bit normal state ^.^ that was fun

P.S. well I guess that's it for today ^.^ thank you for stopping by and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

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Christmas gift card holder

One of the reasons I love to create with Eileen Hull's dies is the incredible versatility they offer. There are so many different project ideas I have for everyone of them!!! For example if you need a quick and easy way to create a gift card holder why not trying Garden Gate album die for it?

for this project all you need is to cut the shape and embellish any way you like (which means from 5 to 30 minutes max time spent for unique and beautiful gift solution, depends of course on time you want to spend to decorate ^.^ )

for the gift holder you see here,
after I cut the fence I painted it with Antique Linen Distress paint and let it dry, then I applied Distress clear crackle paint Rock Candy and Distress paint Picket Fence over the top (these are all Tim Holtz of course) ^.^

for the finishing touch I added Ranger Antiquities embossing powder Frosted Crystal for even more more frosty look

the rest is the stamping, embossing, painting, inking and distressing ^.^

the supplies are:
distress inks: Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge, Evergreen Bought, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Iced Spruce
distress paint: Picket Fence, Antique Linen,    
Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists, Reindeer Flight Tim Holtz stamp

here you can see a bit of how shiny it turned out ^.^

P.S. thank you for stopping by ^.^ wish you christmassy inspiration and joyful crafting!

 

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Christmas gift holder or how to get more out of your Artist Trading Block dies 2

Hello everyone. December is already here and the winter holidays are just around the corner. I'm in a very Christmassy mood these days and my head is full of decorations, Christmas trees, gifts, ornaments and so many more festive things ^.^
Today I want to share with you how you can go from
                                                                       this

to this

Not only this is a cute Christmas decoration it is also a gift holder and you can use it as a Christmas tree ornament.
All you need is Eileen Hull's cube/block 3-D dies. In this project I used the smallest and the biggest one.
1.Start by cutting some mat board with your dies
2.For a tree trunk I embossed the small block with distress powder and colored it with some inks

3.For the rest of a Christmas tree I used the big block , the only tricky thing here is to make some extra cutting and scoring. It goes somewhat like this 

tip: the scoring must be done from the outer side of a block (where we already have our initial score lines)

For this step it was easier for me firstly to adhere the 2 sides of a block as we usually do with this die cuts and then proceed with all the extra cutting and scoring

4. Before gluing everything together in a pyramid shape I added some color and stamping.
The finished top of a tree looks something like this

after that adhere the top with the trunk together and then embellish the way you like it.

5.For the finishing touch I punched few holes at the top of a tree for a ribbon, this way you can also use the tree as a Christmas tree ornament and not only a gift holder ^.^

supplies I used for the tree:

tip: for the faux tinsel twine I drew some thick lines with Ranger Glossy Accents and poured generously Ranger gold embossing tinsel over it, then just let it dry

more photos and close ups of a project:

 

That's it for today, thank you for stopping by and stay tuned for more 3-D Christmassy inspiration which is coming soon.

For more simple and easy gift and packaging ideas from your Artist Trading Block dies you should check HERE.

Also don't forget to share with us your art with heart at December Art With Heart Challenge: Holiday traditions and get a chance to win  Eileen Hull's Loaf Pan die from a brand new Vintage Kitchen collection.

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